Gimpel the Fool

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–1991) was the author of many novels, stories, children’s books, and memoirs. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction in 1989.

Theodore Bikel (1924–2015) was an award-winning stage and screen actor, an activist for civil rights and progressive causes worldwide, and a singer whose voice won him critical acclaim. Some of his credits include The Defiant Ones, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, and Fiddler on the Roof.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005), author of numerous novels, novellas, and stories, was the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards. He also received the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, Bellow served as a war correspondent for Newsday. He taught at New York University, Princeton, and the University of Minnesota and was chairman of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.